console war

The hype train is at full speed now the Xbox One and PS4 are both public knowledge, and Electronic Arts is riding first class. According to EA CTO Rajat Teneja, Sony and Microsoft have systems so magically powerful, they're f...

Another casual discussion from the Dtoid news room
In this special, singularly-focused edition of Office Chat, I'm joined by Jim Sterling and Jordan Devore as we discuss our reactions to the Xbox One reveal. From the frustrations of having to figure out what to now call the ...

Bonus Jimquisition gives Microsoft a telling off
The Xbox One was revealed this weak to thunderous applause. Oh wait, did we say applause? We meant, farts. Thunderous farts.
Speaking of farts, here's a man who loves the smell of his, tearing Microsoft's unified entertainment philosophy to shreds and arguing how the Xbox One is basically a system for nobody but the privileged and demented.

AKA The Nextbox Durango Infinity 720
Hey! Today Microsoft unveiled the new Xbox, the Xbox One.
So, we talked about some of the news that came out of that announcement. That's uh, all we talked about, because it's pretty big news.

We all know Peter Molyneux lives in a gumdrop world of magic and make-believe, but perhaps none of us realized he was so far gone as to live in a world where Nintendo and Sony apparently don't exist. According to the 22 Cans ...

We answer The Question
Microsoft is gearing up to reveal the next generation of Xbox hardware in just a scant two weeks, but what will they be showing? In our latest installment of The Question, we make predictions for the event on May 21.
What are your hopes, dreams and expectations?

Which is better!? WHICH IS BETTER!? C'mon! Make a decision!
So here we've got another Flash cartoon by famed grump Egoraptor. The "console vs. PC" argument is by no means a new one, but that's not the real highlight of this ...

We answer The Question
Tepid sales of Wii U hardware and the slow drip of content being released for it have led some to suggest that perhaps it would be best if Nintendo just got out of the business of making game systems for the living room. Wit...

Another casual discussion from the Dtoid news room
In this latest edition of Office Chat, Dale North, Jordan Devore, and I discuss a waning interest in console gaming, but still want Nintendo to try. Plus, brief thoughts on newly announced Batman titles and Electronic Arts is the worst company in America, but only if the most important thing to you is how convenient and easy it is to play games.

Apr 05 //
Jim Sterling
When his comments were taken to task by BioWare's Manveer Heir, who pointed out the embarrassing issues faced by Diablo III and SimCity at launch, Orth got even more derisive. Heir mentioned America's less-than-consistent broadband coverage, and how users in areas such as Janesville, WI or Backsburg, VA would have a rough time dealing with a console that required a constant connection.
His response?
"Why on Earth would I live there?"
Wow.
His comments were seized upon by NeoGAF commenters, who took him to task in their usual merciless way. Aside from making comments on things Microsoft has been staunchly refusing to comment on, he was taken to task for his general snotty attitude and derogatory comments toward those who don't live in cities blessed with non-shit broadband. Some have taken his combative defense of the idea as a strong hint that Microsoft will, indeed, force Next Xbox users to stay online -- an absolutely absurd hypothetical plan that banks on broadband infrastructures around the world improving immeasurably in an incredibly short time.
Detective-GAF also found a comment from an experienced developer following the issue, posting a line from Nikolai Mohilchock, who said: "Given that legally I cannot confirm or deny if this information is true, nor can I comment on rumor or speculation, all I can say is be sure to pay your ISP bills."
In response to the online battering, both Orth (who likes to be called Sweet Billy) and Heir downplayed the nature of their discussion, the latter saying: "Don't read too much into our back & forth ... All those tweets you are seeing about the city being superior. That's him just trolling me. And I fell for it. Don't bust his balls on that." Unfortunately for Orth, it was way too late for that, and his comments were damning even without the "trolling" about cities.
In the wake of the shitstorm started by his statements, Orth has now protected his Twitter account, hiding further commentary from public view. Once again, this is little more than a case of locking the door after the horse has bolted, but there you go.
A number of industry members, most notably David Jaffe, have rallied to Orth's defense, asking members of NeoGAF and other communities to stop giving Orth a pummeling and insisting he's "one of the good guys." While that might be true (unconfirmed), and while he's probably suffering some disproportionate retribution, what he said to begin with was impressively, jaw-droppingly ignorant, and he does deserve to have such poisonous, anti-consumer rhetoric counteracted. He's going to have to "deal with it" for a while.
The privileged attitude of "deal with it," seems to be one held by many members of the mainstream publishing industry, and more and more customers are getting sick of it. As the console market spirals ever haphazardly toward a crash, I feel people like Orth will learn exactly what happens when consumers en masse begin to learn they don't actually have to deal with any of this bullshit, and go looking for entertainment elsewhere. When the major companies fall to their knees after trying to shave the sheep one too many times, I wonder if they'll be able to "deal with it."
On the subject of an always-online, DRM-gated console, I think Michael Hartman of Frogdice Inc. sums it up perfectly:
"I hope the entire next gen is 'always on DRM.' I love anything AAA does to make it easier for us indies to sell our games."
Deal with it.

Director spews bullshit about DRM-locked system [Update: Microsoft has since apologized for Orth's statements. Deal with it.]
Rumors that the Next Xbox will be restricted by the same always-online requirement that has crippled several major PC releases of late has not exac...

Epic Games' Mark Rein does not view the PlayStation 4 as a mere console, oh no. Echoing similar sentiments to Avalanche Studios, Rein believes the PS4 is a gaming PC with a memory advantage over less dedicated computers. In f...

Next wave of mobile devices expected to outperform consolesNvidia's Senior vice president of content and technology, Tony Tamasi, expects the next crop of mobile devices to outperform current generation consoles, claiming the Xbox 360 and PS3 can barely hold an edge over today's...

Alice creator American McGee is not stoked about Sony's PlayStation 4 unveiling, explaining the lack of innovation in the controller department as the big reason for his apathy. The PS4's conventional DualShock 4 design has e...

Valve distanced themselves from Xi3's Piston via a public statement that came after an announcement that the Steam-ready console would cost $1,000. Now, Xi3's CEO says Valve asked him to build the Piston and that Gabe Newell ...

Mar 12 //
Jim SterlingBlow's also quite keen on the PS4's "Share" button as well, believing it'll really impact the way the console is used.
"In general, as a platform feature, it's super interesting," he explained. "One thing that most game developers have become really aware of is that over the past couple of years on YouTube the whole livecast and commentary thing is really huge.
"A lot of people are paying a lot of attention to it now and it’s interesting to see what happens if you base an entire console around it. That’s what’s crazy about PS4 -- it has a chip that’s always recording to a maybe two-minute buffer. After something cool happens, it’s there in the buffer. That's the sort of thing that’s really going to change the way something’s used."
I tend to agree with Blow on this point. Some gamers have written off the whole "Share" thing is stupid, but it was a wise thing for Sony to implement -- fairly unobtrusive for those uninterested in it, but very useful for those who are. It's an age of sharing across all media, and it's nice to see Sony uncharacteristically savvy enough to jump on the bandwagon while it's still hot.
Jonathan Blow on the power of PS4 and how sharing will change the way we play [Edge]

RAM it home, Blow!Cheerful game developer Jonathan Blow has been chatting up the PlayStation 4's potential, and like Avalanche Studios, is keen to tout the console's benefits over PC. According to the man behind The Witness, equivalent games w...

Avalanche Studios chief technical officer Linus Blomberg is one of the many developers getting horned up over the PlayStation 4, and believes Sony's system couldn't come at a better time. With gaming PCs outclassing current g...

The next generation PlayStation is fleshUpdate: PS4 is slated to appear this holiday season, 2013!
Sony's next generation has officially kickstarted! Live from New York City, Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4!
It will have 8GB of unified memory, a X...

Imagines a software-only future for the Big NCliff Bleszinski has painted a grim portrait of the game console landscape in a recent GI interview, likening the "state of transition" to that experienced in the famous videogame market crash. His most controversial statemen...

Feb 19 //
Allistair PinsofEven as Google cooks up new algorithms for its searches, the presence of SEO bastards filling the internet with useless, misleading crap for clicks ($$$) continues to grow. The current crop of fake PS4 sites is a good example of this. To those that don't make mad money games blogging, SEO stands for search engine optimization. Putting priority on placement of certain buzzwords. The headline "Britney Spears boobs PS4 am I really pregnant?" would do wonders on our site, if it didn't do an even more wonderful job driving our current audience away.
Perhaps, I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know -- but while I'm at it, use condoms (rubber bands and Ziploc bags aren't the same thing!) -- so let's jump into the good stuff: fake-ass PS4 sites. If you do a Google search and click a couple pages past ye olde' IGNs and Kotakus, you'll be greeted by a list of sites with eye-sore URLs (that I won't link to, in fear of forwarding malware/spyware): ps4info.com, ps4playstation4.com, sonyps4.com, etc.
These crappy Wordpress-based sites feature "exclusive" leaked footage of the PS4, numerous console images, lists of unofficial games, pre-order info, and tickers counting down an unannounced release date:
[embed]245902:47031:0[/embed]
You probably shouldn't click on this.
What these sites don't have is any contact info or transparency on who started the damn thing. Occasionally, you'll find mention a company name if you dig deep enough. Here's FutureROI: respectable webmasters of SonyPS4.com along with OurWeed.com and L0Lz.com. It does not surprise me in the least to discover FutureROI is Las Vegas-based. I mean, why wouldn't they be?
If it sounds like I'm ragging on these SEO scambait sites, I'm actually not. Sure, what they do is scummy, pointless and toxic to our online environment, but I find it all so delightfully kitsch. I love reading six-plus paragraphs of a writer pulling PS4 factoids out of their bumhole, stealing DeviantART console renders and presenting them as *LEAKED* pictures, and the horrid site design that is at once evident of less than 48 hours of work and nostalgic of GeoCities fan pages of the '90s.
Instead of getting mad, let's laugh at these dumb sites by highlighting the five worst PS4 console images (original source of each design linked below):
1) This thing
Glass + touch = future? I get the sense that something along that equation is being taught at design schools, because I see this kind of crap everywhere in design forums. I don't even know what the hell this thing is. Why would you want the system menu on your physical console? Why would you want a postage stamp video feed of your game on your lap? How comfortable would this thing even be? The only real advancement I see here is that the PS4 could double as a fancy food tray.
[via convoyrider]
2) Whatever the hell this is
This is what would happen if Adidas designed the PS4. Coming soon to Big Lots and Payless Shoes!
[via Nebojsa Nadj]
3) This car radio-looking garbage
I love the "connect to 4 screens" remark. Because there really is a big market of people who own four TVs side-by-side, and a lot of potential in games to take advantage of it. I'm even more puzzled by how you set this down, or does it just constantly wobble back and forth on its rounded frame?
[via Neklas Heller]
4) This 100% legit, non-Photoshop'd system
Even my eight-year-old imagination couldn't foresee this monstrosity.
[via HypeUp]
5) The PlayStation toaster
Whether or not the graphics or controls are revolutionary, this model guarantees to reach new heights in fire hazard probability.
[via PSU]
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Come tomorrow, Sony will unveil the future of PlayStation. I don't doubt that this racket of fake PS4 info will continue, but the kitsch factor will be lost along with the use of fake system and controller mock-ups. So, let's cherish these final hours of ignorance and intentional misdirection.
Post your favorite PS4 mock-ups below, along with any you made on your own. And as always, wildly speculate and pretend you have eXclusive infoz from your friend who works at Sony.

Seems legitWherever there is public interest, there are con artists preying upon the susceptible. How many shoddily-built iPod rip-offs must one buy or mid-life-crisis-inducing timeshares must one occupy, before this lesson is learned?
...

Following yesterday's angry protests from Nintendo fans, industry analyst Michael "Fishy Sunday" Pachter took to NeoGAF to clarify his statements.There was uproar when Pachter said the Wii U was a mistake Nintendo may never r...

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli doesn't sound too impressed by the prospect of a new console generation -- in fact, he claims Crysis 3 running on a high-end PC is already ahead of future competition. The ruling factor here, according ...

Feb 18 //
Jim SterlingThe answer to the problem, for other analysts interviewed, was games. Software is the only way Nintendo can crawl out of its hole, according to the market brains.
"Games, games, and more games," emphasized Lewis Ward of IDC. "The relationship between key releases -- primarily first-party titles -- and hardware sales is especially clear in Nintendo’s case. The sooner they get titles like Pikmin 3 and Wii Fit U on the console side and Pokémon games and titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS side on store shelves, the better."
Pachter, however, is not so hopeful, and thinks this may be it for the house of Mario. Of course, one thing the analyst does not yet know is that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has a Luigi hat ...
Therefore, his argument holds no water.
Analyst: Wii U a ‘mistake’ for Nintendo [GamesBeat, thanks RJ!]

Analyst declares system a costly errorIndustry analyst Michael "Chewy Homunculus" Pachter has been saying for years that Nintendo missed the boat on an HD Wii followup, and now he believes his predictions have yielded fruit. Framing the Wii U launch as a disaster...

Are mouse & keyboards, control over saves, and health packs a thing of the past?A lot of news on Bungie's new shooter Destiny has come out this morning, and while it looks like an interesting game, there hasn't been a PC version announced by the Halo developer. Something said by the studio...

New Teenage Pokemon every Sunday morning
[Teenage Pokemon is a cartoon show about Pokemon in their middle stage of evolution -- not a girl, not yet a women. New episodes every week.]
When I was growing up, social classism wasn't really an issue in "gamer cultu...

Are you itching to get your hands on the newest Ouya-like console, the Gamestick? You can grab one now for $79.99, along with a few extras like a dock or a case. Basically, this allows you to get a Gamestick a few months befo...

Former VP of Windows sales at Microsoft Joachim Kempin spoke with IGN about Microsoft's entrance into the videogame console market, prior to committing to the Xbox, saying: "There were three companies at that point in time, I...

The OUYA console will start arriving at the homes of its Kickstarter backers in March, but you'll be seeing them in your local shops a scant few months later. An interview with OUYA CEO Julie Uhrman published on the WSJ....

Feb 01 //
Allistair Pinsof
The controller
Sony's new console will introduce a new take on the traditional PS controller, according to Edge, keeping the same size while adding a small touchpad in place of the Select, Start, and PS buttons. The touchpad is based on the Vita handheld's rear touch tech.
Along with the touchpad, a new "Share" button will give players the ability to immediately capture and distribute screenshots and video online (similar to OnLive's Brag clips); the console will continuously record the last 15 minutes of gameplay, so video is always ready to go (or maybe military are using it to find the next star fighter?), according to Edge. CVG's source echoed this info, which increases its likelihood to be true. It is unclear if this Share button is a physical button or the touch pad itself, accessed by clicking down on it, according to Kotaku.
PS4 will continue to support Sixaxis (improved with tilt correction) and the Move motion controller, according to documents reported by Kotaku. The system launch will also bring about an improved version of the PlayStation Eye peripheral, according to Edge.
Why is this exciting? Sony's new controller will be a natural evolution, as it continues to occupy a place between current trends (touch, motion controls) without fully committing in the way Nintendo has with the Wii and Wii U or dividing the userbase like Microsoft did with Kinect. It's hard to imagine what can be done with such a tiny touch pad, and it's frighteningly easy to imagine what terrible touch gimmicks can be shoved into games after the Vita. The share feature makes me more hopeful, as it sends an early message that Sony is investing in online infrastructure in a big way.
[embed]243768:46663:0[/embed]
The hardware
As of January 2013, according to Kotaku, the current development kit consists of:
System Memory: 8GB
Video Memory: 2.2 GB
CPU: 4x Dual-Core AMD64 "Bulldozer", 1.6GHz
GPU: AMD R10xx (w/ Liverpool)
Ports: 4x USB 3.0, 2x Ethernet [extra for local sharing, dev. use]
Drive: Blu-Ray
HDD: 160GB [Retail may be larger]
Audio Output: HDMI & Optical, 2.0, 5.1 & 7.1 channels, headphone jack
Sony's console may have an advantage over Microsoft's codenamed Durango due to the high performance GDDR5 memroy in the system that can move data at 176 gigabyters per second, according to Edge. A source told the magazine that the PS4 is “slightly more powerful [than Durango]” and “very simple to work with.”
Why is this exciting? The framework of the PS4 will closely resemble a PC, making it easier to develop for and fix (when the inevitable launch batch problems occur). Eurogamer compare the PS4's GPU to the Radeon 7970M laptop GPU (used to run Crysis 2 in the video above). Unless the reports are wrong, PS4 should out do the Durango in terms of sheer power. Can you imagine the next Killzone or Uncharted on this thing?
Online
Rewriting the rulebook on console networks, PS4 will allow more than one user to be logged into a single console at the same time via controllers. Accounts won't be locked to a controller, but each connected controller will require an account to associate it with.
Kotaku reports that this will allow even distribution of trophies in games, such as all four logged players gaining the same achievements from defeating a difficult boss.
There are also premature reports of the console putting a greater emphasis on media, which is kind of stating the obvious at this point. What's more interesting is Sony's plans for the Gaikai tech.
Why is this exciting? Though Xbox Live and PlayStation Network function well enough, it's always a hassle to log in with other players. Starting an offline co-op session can often feel like puzzle to be solved, in certain games. This new system will make the process easier and faster, while putting a greater emphasis on offline couch play -- something hardware manufacturers and game publishers thought would go away, but instead the Wii only increased its value and presence.
Launch
Sony's next console will make its debut at a New York event ("See the future.") on Feb. 20, with a holiday launch in US and Japan to come (Europe in 2014), according to The Wall Street Journal, Polygon, and Edge. The predicted price point is somewhere around $350 - 400.
Possible launch titles:
Whore of the OrientNew EA franchise(s)New Quantic Dream gameNew United Front titleNew SquareEnix titleThe usual suspects (Uncharted, inFAMOUS, Killzone, etc.)Metal Gear Solid: Ground ZeroesWatch DogsStar Wars 1313
Keep an eye on our #PS4 for upcoming news on possible titles.
Why is this exciting? It's a new Sony console! Do I really need to give you a reason?
[Images by Joseph Dumary, courtesy of Yanko Design]

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